SPORTS 'N SPOKES

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Never Give Up

Despite losing five team members to injuries, the U.S. Disabled Water Ski Team enjoyed success in Australia.

They had an uphill battle brewing even before they caught their flights out of the United States. A series of injuries had depleted the 2007 U.S. Disabled Water Ski Team. Five athletes—including seven-time team member and world-record holder Katie Mawby, Aric Fine, Bill Furbish, Stephany Glassing, and Raquel Roney—were scratched from competition for the 8th Disabled Water Ski World Championships, held May 17-20 in Townsville, Australia.

Despite the setback and the fact that the U.S. athletes were emerging from the off-season, team members who made the trip offered few excuses for their performances at the 2007 Worlds.

"It is true that the team suffered early by losing key performing athletes, [but] we did have the tools to get the job done at this event," said Chad Guzman (Gilbert, Ariz.), one of more than a handful of U.S. athletes to medal at the biennial event. "But it would have demanded all U.S. competitors ski flawlessly. The bottom line is the other teams—Great Britain and Australia—skied well when they should have, and we struggled to gain momentum. We did pretty good, but like most athletes striving to do better we needed to step it up and make things happen."

Other U.S. team members were Stephanie Dodd (Chattanooga, Tenn.), Steve Hornsey (Sacramento, Calif.), Matt Oberholtz (Oroville, Calif.), Joe Ray (Wilsonville, Ala.), Ronda Jarvis-Ray (Wilsonville, Ala.), Craig Timm (Lindstrom, Minn.), and Mark Turner (Riverbank, Calif.).

A total of 52 athletes from 15 countries participated in the championships. Great Britain, which tallied 14,013.86 points, won its second consecutive gold medal, its fourth in the event's history. Australia earned its first silver at the event after scoring 11,853.89. It was the first time the U.S. team, which had seven athletes win medals on its way to earning bronze (11,814.18), did not finish in the top two. Italy and France rounded out the top five.


Learn more about individual results leading to the U.S. team's third-place finish.

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